(Blog-Off II Entry) Are You a LION, Turtle, HoundDog, or Alley Cat? What's Your LinkedIn Strategy?

 LinkedIn is a fairly harmonious place.  People tend to act professional and when there are opposing opinions they typically become a case where people “agree to disagree”.  Things change though when you began discussing LIONS.  Suddenly the conversation isn’t so rosy.  

LION’s, for those who don’t know are open networkers.  They connect to just about anyone.  They see opportunity increasing as the number of connections increases.  Those who disagree see LIONS as simply driving their ego’s by counting the connections, as if the purpose of LinkedIn is to proudly claim to have 1,000’s of connections.

For the record I don’t consider myself a LION, yet I’m an open networker.  When writing my first LinkedIn book I identified three LinkedIn connection strategies.  This year I added a fourth to define how I now connect.

How you choose to connect will impact how you use LinkedIn and in the end your chances of finding success.

Before we look at the four connection strategies I want to make one point.  How you choose to connect on LinkedIn should be of no concern to anyone else.  It’s your network and your strategy.  As long as it works for you thats all that matters.

The Four LinkedIn Connection Strategies:

The LION
As stated above LIONS are completely open connectors.  They seek to increase their connections through actively sending out and accepting connection invitations.  While I’m sure there are a few who take pride in touting the specific number, the majority simply believe that large networks lead to more opportunity.

Steve Burda is a LION with over 30,000 connections.  I don’t know Steve but I’ve seen countless references to his taking time to help others.  So yes he has a large network, but no its not about the number.  Its about having the opportunity to help a significant number of people.  If this leads to new business for him, more power to him.

The Turtle
Turtles are the opposite of LIONS.  Turtles primarily only connect to those they know well.  They see value in having a tight network made up of individuals that they completely trust.  Their networks tend to be highly selective and can be counted on to pass on introductions, much like a private networking group.

I don’t know many Turtles but the ones I do know are like Steve interested in being a productive resource for those they choose to connect to.  LinkedIn is a way to enhance their offline networking making their existing relationships a little more connected.

The Hound Dog
When I first joined LinkedIn I was only aware of LIONS.  I knew right away that LinkedIn added an additional layer of connectivity to those I knew.  I also realized that it could help me meet other local business professionals that I did not know.

At each Chamber meeting they would pass out copies of everyone’s business cards.  After each meeting I would see who was on LinkedIn and then invite them to connect.  At the next Chamber meeting the connection provided a great ice breaker.  It also established connections with those people who only attended a single meeting.

I also used LinkedIn to seek out people I would like to connect with.  Doing this allowed me to establish connections with other business professionals who might help my clients, become a referral partner, and some who were prospects.  This ability to hunt for specific people led me to define the strategy as a Hound Dog.

A Hound Dog is someone who uses LinkedIn to connect to those they know, to connect to those they would like to know, and accepts invitations from those that would be beneficial to be connected to.  

For the first year that I was serious about using LinkedIn I followed this strategy.  Then one day I had a thought, “How do I know whether or not a connection I know could benefit from a connection that I didn’t know?”   The answer was that I didn’t know.

It was that at this point that I changed my strategy for connecting on LinkedIn. 

The Alley Cat
I still only send invitations to people I know or people that I have a specific reason for connecting to.  What changed is that I now accept invitations from just about anyone.  There is value in knowing your connections but there are also unexpected opportunities that develop from establishing new connections, known and unknown.

This connection strategy supports my overall LinkedIn strategy which is this:  I seek to provide value to and help as many people as possible.  Much of that value is provided through the Social Media Sonar blog, sharing tips and strategies with others on how to more effectively utilize LinkedIn and social media/networking.  Sometimes its through being the hub to connect two people.  At other times its through conducting workshops, writing LinkedIn books and guides, etc.  The more people I am connected to the more people that I can share with.

I believe that to create opportunity you have to first be willing to help others.  Then, by consistently sharing value over time, you allow people to move through the Process of Familiarity.  A process that has to happen before someone will choose to do business with you.

What I call the Process of Familiarity likely has been called many things by other people.   The three components are:

• People need to Know You or at a Minimum Know Of You:  Often connecting or engaging in conversations will accomplish this.

• People Must Like You or Have a Positive Opinion:  How you interact with others and the value of the content you share will help here.  If people like your content they will like you.

• People Must Trust You:  Building trust is dependent upon engaging on conversations or sharing value consistently over time.  As people see you on an ongoing basis and are exposed to the value you share the “Like” will grow into “Trust”.

Through this process here’s what I’ve seen happen.  Each week I write one or two blog posts that show people how to utilize LinkedIn.  I then use the tools LinkedIn provides to communicate that there is a new blog post.  People visit the blog for the first time or as a repeat visitor.  At some point they check out my profile and learn what it is that I do and see how I can help them.  

If they like the content they begin to have a positive impression of me and this eventually moves to a sense of trust.  At this point if they ever have a need for my services I am top of mind and they will contact me.

Something else happens as well.  People like to share content on other Social Media sites so at some point they become my social media amplification system.  This introduces my blog to people outside of the communities I’ve built.

Wrap Up
The connection strategy you choose will depend upon how you want to use LinkedIn.  There is no right or wrong choice as long as your connection strategy supports the goals you have determined.  For me the change to an Alley Cat has helped generate 3 to 5 contacts per week about my services.

Which strategy are you using and why?  If you agree or disagree with the post please leave a comment.  Your perspective is as important as mine, so share it with everyone.

Sean Nelson is the author of the Social Media Sonar blog and has written three LinkedIn eBooks including one of the first books detailing how to strategically use LinkedIn to grow your business. "LinkedIn Marketing Secret Formula".  He is a Partner in SONARconnects.

Comments

[Jennie Corbin]

I am an Ally Cat, since I only send invitations to people I know or people who I know will be providing information I can use. I always accept invitations though...you never know what someone has to offer.

[Sean Nelson]

Here is the comments roundup for this morning. Thanks for joining the conversation.

Janet I used CardScan in the past as well as ACT and Outlook. LinkedIn isn’t the greatest CRM but it does allow you to keep tabs on the people you meet. Plus as you participate in LinkedIn they see some or all of that activity.

Jim those unexpected opportunities are what makes LinkedIn work. You have to extend your reach beyond those you know to find these. I agree on the best discovery being open networking. That’s a huge part of why I was able to take LinkedIn from a networking tool to a business driving tool.

Tina you’re welcome. I used to be a HoundDog.

Tim I’ve been told I should scale my posts back since people don’t read long posts. My response is if the information shares value people will read long posts and engage in conversations. Thanks for the comment.

Sandi sounds like you have a strategy and how you connect supports it. If you want to share as much value with as many people as possible you have to be a LION or at least an Alley Cat.

Ross if I remember correctly you were part of the discussion that led to me defining an Alley Cat. Thanks for the comments and for creating the Top Recommended Group on LinkedIn. Its been one of the top groups I’ve interacted with.

Roweena you just expanded the definitions with “headless chicken” and a “blind bat”. Both of which I have been during my time on LinkedIn. Welcome to the Alley Cat team.

Darlene LinkedIn is a great tool to interact with others. Join the groups that have people who would enjoy your writing topics. Then you can engage and connect to those types of folks.

Loek driving results from sharing and helping others requires patience. It took over a year for me to start seeing results. LinkedIn has added some new features that help this happen sooner, but it still takes time to build your brand. I’m not sure I analyzed the term Alley Cat when choosing to call the style of connecting...just pulled it out of the air. I would think about renaming Alley Cats to Saartje if I thought I could spell it correctly a majority of the time. For simplicities sake I think I’ll keep it at Alley Cat.

Dianne I agree with everything you said. The most important part is that its your strategy and its working for you. Good luck with the job search.

Thanks for the comments everyone. Please consider passing a link to the blog post onto your connections.

Sean

[Diane Askwyth]

I am a LION and open networker because it's in my DNA. Before LinkedIn, I maintained a strong network with primitive tools. I use LinkedIn to help people and arrange introductions when asked to do so. Now that I am unemployed, I am asking my network for help with job leads. It is working as it should. I see no reason to refuse to network with anyone, unless they are promoting or selling something in an overly aggressive or obnoxious way. I think we are all connected as human beings, and everyone should be an open networker!

[Loek Hopstaken]

Hi Sean,

The main issue in this and many of your previous blogs is having the intention and attitude of helping. I believe in this, although it needs both perseverence and patience. As in 'real life' (as opposed to life on the internet) most people on LinkedIn seem all too eager to 'come and get'. And as you have stated so often, they won't get if they won't give.

I recognize myself as an alley cat. Yet, these animals are not famous givers. They observe, carefully choose their target and grab whatever they can lay their paws on. I'm more like Saartje. She was my no. 1 pet cat. She started her life as an alley cat, joined our family when she was 1 year old. Saartje turned out to be a rare specimen: she displayed characteristics of a dog. A true pal, that shares your mood, and tries to improve it by inviting you to play a game with you. Perhaps that's one of the sub-reasons people connect: not just for business, but looking for a pal.

Thanks for all your wise words and blogs.

[Darlene Sabella]

Sean, your articles are eye openers for me. I write articles and post them to links. I might join a few groups, but I don't have time to focus on only one, like linkedin, I enjoy sharing and I must be a turtle. But, really the truth be told, I was learning, I had no idea what each link opens, each with it's own purpose. Reading your posts has pushed me to challange myself and expand. Thank you my friend, great going.

[Rowena Simpson]

Hi Sean,

I didn't know it till now, (or should that be Neaow?) but I'm definately an alley cat. I started as a headless chicken, running round in circles not really sure what was going on, progressed to a Bat - blindly sending out pulses into the abyss to see what worked and what came back again, and since starting my blog http://blog.giraffejobs.co.uk about 3 weeks ago have definately become a proud member of the Alley Cat gang. I only invite people I know, but by the mighty power of the social network I am showered with most welcome invitations to connect, and flattered by the kindness of others in passing on my links. As an Alley Cat my motto is "give and you will receive."

[Ross Dodwell]

Sean,

I guess I'd call myself an Alley Cat. I don't solicit too many 1st level contacts, although I do accept most. I do send out invitations to join the Top Recommended People group on Linkedin(tm) for those individuals having 10 or more recommendations. The group has grown to 1,400 members today, with people like you.

Sean I want to thank you for your exceptional blog posts, for being a Top Recommended People member, and for being a terrific 1st level contact of mine!

Ross

[Sandi Bluestein]

Sean,
As usual, a thought-provoking topic. I am a LION. I accept 99% of all invites received. Those not accepted - are those without a specific individual's name, or an almost blank profile.
Was more of a turtle when I initially joined LI. But my current supporting philosophy is not specifically a head count issue, but rather the more connections I have, the greater my ability to assist others. The larger my network, the greater probabilities in my searching for contacts at a specific organization.
This tool, incorporated with f2f networking enables a greater degree of success in connecting and locating. Makes the world a truly (smaller) space.
Sandi

[Tim]

Hi Sean,

I love how informative and well put your posts are. I will be utilizing your techniques since I am new to LinkedIn. Thank you for your post and I look forward to reading more!

Keep up the great work.

[Tina Lowe, SalesPartners-NorthPoint]

Sean,
Thank you for the link to your latest LinkedIn blog. I learned today what LION means and that I am a proud Hound Dog.
Tina Lowe
SalesPartners-NorthPoint
http://www.salespartnersnorthpoint.com

[Jim Sutton]

I started as a Lion/ hound and now operate mostly as what you call an alley cat. The reason I am not so active any more is all the wonderful " unexpected opportunities" you mentions as a result of connecting with people you don't know-- very busy now helping and receiving help from my network connections. That was the best discovery I have ever made: open networking.

However, many overlook the possibility that you can be a lion, hound, cat AND turtle at the same time our at least shift. I shifted from active Lion to more passive cat. And, I do have a small inner circle that I know very well and trust.

[Janet Barclay]

Sean, I have been on LinkedIn for several years but know I'm not getting as much benefit from it as I could, so this article is extremely helpful.

I particularly like the idea of connecting with people I've just met at networking events on LinkedIn. I used to enter the business cards in my Outlook address book and send them a follow-up email, but I found myself with over a thousand contacts, many of whom I had no contact with since the initial one. If I replace that with a LinkedIn invitation and they accept, we can then stay on top of each other's activities without necessarily corresponding directly (and if they don't, I'm no worse off than I was the old way). I can't believe I never thought of this before!

Armed with your brilliant ideas, I think I'll be making much better use of LinkedIn going forward. Thank you!

[Sean Nelson]

I'm going to be responding to comments several at a time. This keeps my responses from cluttering up the conversation.

Jim thanks for the comments. Since the LION was an animal I kept the animal theme in defining strategies. Since you have a deep pre-social media network you should be looking to extend the connections online. Doesn't replace the offline relationship but should enhance it.

MikeY welcome to the Alley Cat team.

Michael you should be able to find more of the story at my regular blog http://www.socialmediasonar.com. Two years worth of posts that should cover the gamut.

Ron I think you'll find that over time your connection strategy will change to support your overall strategy. I agree on providing recommendations only when earned. Otherwise what's the point. As far Risk there isn't significant risk to adding an unknown person to your network. The most they can do is send a connection invitation to someone in your network but they could probably do that without you in the picture. I say let the end recipient's determine if they should accept the connection.

Tina the animal theme is just something I came up with to classify the strategies. Can't say I've seen it uniformly accepted, but who knows over time.

Thanks for the comments. If you have not seen the first post "7 Worst Mistakes on LinkedIn" go to http://bit.ly/blogoff2. consider leaving a comment and joining the conversation.

Sean

[Ron]

Hi Sean,

I use a mix of LinkedIn stratetegies depending on my purpose. I really do screen my connections and make very selective invitations. However, once in my network I really try to help where ever I can from helping find employment, networking, recommendations, referals, connecting with support agencies etc. I do not give recommendations if there is not a basis to do so. I probably turnd down about half of my invites, mainly folks just looking to build numbers for their network witih no shared activity implied.

My other side is risk, I have to weigh each invite and accepted invite as a risk. I don't want to put someone elses reputation, network, career branding at risk and am trying to build my own as I transition and seek a new adventure as I transition from the Air Force.

Does this make sense, any suggestions, feedback?

Kind regards

Ron Dixon
Transitioning Air Force Vet
rpd456@gmail.com

[Tina Michaud]

Sean,
Great stuff. I didn't know anything about the "animals" on LinkedIn but it's certainly helpful when researching and contacting people. Believe it or not I was a turtle, back in the day but now have moved to an alley cat and I'm very happy. Your information is insightful and extremely helpful. Thx
Tina

[MICHAEL GROVE PHD]

Sean you are providing a valuable service to us all . You are providing a LinkedIn owners manual . But what this blog is providing is only the first and second chapter.To use a dating analogy, meeting strategies are the vital begining steps . What happens next is more important. How can we use LinkedIn to learn from each other as a group. What tools and methods best foster this on LinkedIn? Inquiring minds want to know.

[Jim Matorin]

Sean:

Fun analogy. I think one's connection strategy with LinkedIn should be consistent with one's overall networking strategy. Right now, for me LinkedIn is only one component of my overall strategy which has been in place pre-social media. My pre-social media network is deep vs. LinkedIn which to date appears to be very ephemeral - connect today, gone tomorrow.

[MikeY]

I guess I am a hound dog who will transform into an alley cat.

[Sean Nelson]

Mark,

The majority of people that call me are people I've never spoken with. Like you I've also met some interesting people and learned some from them as well.

Thanks for the comments.

Sean

[Sean Nelson]

Mike,

LinkedIn obviously has a lot to blog about. Good to see different perspectives.

Nice to see a fellow Alley Cat.

Sean

[Mark Plummer]

Hi,

I think I am an AlleyCat .... I have built my LinkedIn membership to about 1000 & hope to get to about 2000. But I spend time connecting with these people, by emailing, asking questions in LinkedIn & answering questions. I also accept links from everyone ... it is a good way of making new connections - I have recieved good advice from people I have accepted random connections from.

Mark

[Mike Browne]

Sean,

It seems as though Linked-In is a big topic of discussion in this contest. It is very relevant to the business side of social networking. Ally Cats know how to survive. You can learn from a cat.